In a somewhat surprising move, Motorola has just announced the official release of the Android 4.1 update for the DROID RAZR M. When the Motorola DROID RAZR M was unveiled in early September, Motorola did promise to deliver the Jelly Bean update for the device before the end of the year. Given Motorola’s history of pushing out updates, it looks like the company is operating with much more aggressive timelines since coming under the Google umbrella.

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You’ll get that early next year. They focus on what’s viewed as most important (not to say the RAZR and MAXX weren’t), but they’ll update their most recent hardware and go back from there. That’s why the Bionic will get JB last (probably late 1Q2013), whereas the RAZR and RAZR Maxx will get it early to mid 1Q2013.

Ok, I know, you don’t like links. But there are good news there: “Starting with Android 4.2, the next iteration of Jelly Bean, we will release a preview of our software to a few hundred consumers that sign up for Test Drive.”

It’s a solid phone for the price (considering the outdated phones they still sell for the same or more…) and it’s got a heavy ad blitz. Props to a decent upgrade time…..including vzw approval process of all those months..

So, it seems like Motorola is updating Verizon phones, but nobody else’s. The Bionic is a late 2010 or early 2011 phone that got the ICS update (and is slated for JB), but the Photon and Electrify on Sprint and US Cellular are a year newer (late 2011, right before ICS came out), more powerful, and got cheated out of the update (as it was used as a selling point).

Basically, if you’re not on Verizon (i.e. you like having service outside the major cities) and you have a Motorola phone… you’re gonna have a bad time.

that’s actually pretty impressive for Verizon to put out a major software update so fast. I bought the Rezound and was told update coming in 1st Qtr, well that was a lie by about 7-8 months. So, good for them.

Received the update this morning, must say that at first I seen no difference but after a couple hours of use it is much faster, the google search is amazing, voice recognition actually works and my battery use dropped. 8 hours and I still have 65% power normally I would be at 50-58% and that after me playing with it allot. Visually little change, performance about 25% better.

Having a hard time finding the search function on this site. Then again, maybe what I’d like to do would work better on another site. This Motorola thread comes close, so here goes…

I got a Motorola Photon Q from Sprint free on a new line of service. I got it for the wife but have been using it for a month and, believe it or not, actually like it.
If you haven’t heard of it, no biggie. If you have one, though, please comment with what you like, what you don’t like, and how you fixed what you don’t like.

I like the backlit, slider keyboard WAY more than I thought. Mostly because predictive text has come so far since I started using SWYPE. My wife excels at many things, but I can tell you now that a SWYPE interface would never work for her. She “came of age” on a physical keyboard and will really enjoy a big, backlit (yes she sometimes works in the dark, literally) keyboard.
The native on-screen keyboards work OK. I haven’t used SWYPE on it much and don’t want to train it now that the sliding, backlit, physical keyboard (SBPK) has so much of my stuff.

Second, the display is big AND gorgeous.

Third and so on:
– Solid feel and tight slide. The phone is weighty but not heavy. The slide is solid and hasn’t loosened a mm since I got it.
– Not intimidating to an Android noob, but not too simplistic for a someone who has rooted an earlier Android phone without bricking it. I found that as I dug for tweaks and configs they were easy to find and worked as anticipated.
– The Sprint-ware on it is minimal. It’s not a pure Android experience (angelic chorus swell-and-fade), but it’s not nearly as tedious and offensive as previous Sprint Android phones.
– The SBPK has a solid software integration. Switch to it when your text message or Waze road update starts to get long and it doesn’t choke, cough, or even sputter. Sometimes it has a problem, but that’s usually when I’ve got a lot of apps running or something.

Downside. Integral battery, no SD slot, 4GB total memory. For some people these are deal-breakers and I understand that. And there’s no way to fix that. But my wife doesn’t care about the battery and memory and many potential Android-users won’t care either.

Overall, the Photon Q makes a good transition for people who have used sliders for much of their cell-phone life and want a bigger, clearer screen on a phone that does more and does it better but feel intimidated by an on-screen keyboard.

You’ll get that early next year. They focus on what’s viewed as most important (not to say the RAZR and MAXX weren’t), but they’ll update their most recent hardware and go back from there. That’s why the Bionic will get JB last (probably late 1Q2013), whereas the RAZR and RAZR Maxx will get it early to mid 1Q2013.

Ok, I know, you don’t like links. But there are good news there: “Starting with Android 4.2, the next iteration of Jelly Bean, we will release a preview of our software to a few hundred consumers that sign up for Test Drive.”

It’s a solid phone for the price (considering the outdated phones they still sell for the same or more…) and it’s got a heavy ad blitz. Props to a decent upgrade time…..including vzw approval process of all those months..

So, it seems like Motorola is updating Verizon phones, but nobody else’s. The Bionic is a late 2010 or early 2011 phone that got the ICS update (and is slated for JB), but the Photon and Electrify on Sprint and US Cellular are a year newer (late 2011, right before ICS came out), more powerful, and got cheated out of the update (as it was used as a selling point).

Basically, if you’re not on Verizon (i.e. you like having service outside the major cities) and you have a Motorola phone… you’re gonna have a bad time.

that’s actually pretty impressive for Verizon to put out a major software update so fast. I bought the Rezound and was told update coming in 1st Qtr, well that was a lie by about 7-8 months. So, good for them.

Received the update this morning, must say that at first I seen no difference but after a couple hours of use it is much faster, the google search is amazing, voice recognition actually works and my battery use dropped. 8 hours and I still have 65% power normally I would be at 50-58% and that after me playing with it allot. Visually little change, performance about 25% better.

Having a hard time finding the search function on this site. Then again, maybe what I’d like to do would work better on another site. This Motorola thread comes close, so here goes…

I got a Motorola Photon Q from Sprint free on a new line of service. I got it for the wife but have been using it for a month and, believe it or not, actually like it.
If you haven’t heard of it, no biggie. If you have one, though, please comment with what you like, what you don’t like, and how you fixed what you don’t like.

I like the backlit, slider keyboard WAY more than I thought. Mostly because predictive text has come so far since I started using SWYPE. My wife excels at many things, but I can tell you now that a SWYPE interface would never work for her. She “came of age” on a physical keyboard and will really enjoy a big, backlit (yes she sometimes works in the dark, literally) keyboard.
The native on-screen keyboards work OK. I haven’t used SWYPE on it much and don’t want to train it now that the sliding, backlit, physical keyboard (SBPK) has so much of my stuff.

Second, the display is big AND gorgeous.

Third and so on:
– Solid feel and tight slide. The phone is weighty but not heavy. The slide is solid and hasn’t loosened a mm since I got it.
– Not intimidating to an Android noob, but not too simplistic for a someone who has rooted an earlier Android phone without bricking it. I found that as I dug for tweaks and configs they were easy to find and worked as anticipated.
– The Sprint-ware on it is minimal. It’s not a pure Android experience (angelic chorus swell-and-fade), but it’s not nearly as tedious and offensive as previous Sprint Android phones.
– The SBPK has a solid software integration. Switch to it when your text message or Waze road update starts to get long and it doesn’t choke, cough, or even sputter. Sometimes it has a problem, but that’s usually when I’ve got a lot of apps running or something.

Downside. Integral battery, no SD slot, 4GB total memory. For some people these are deal-breakers and I understand that. And there’s no way to fix that. But my wife doesn’t care about the battery and memory and many potential Android-users won’t care either.

Overall, the Photon Q makes a good transition for people who have used sliders for much of their cell-phone life and want a bigger, clearer screen on a phone that does more and does it better but feel intimidated by an on-screen keyboard.